Stick This in Your Nightmare, Pal
by Thesaurusgirl
Summary: He tried to tell this it was a bad idea


**Don't know how many more of these I'm going to write, but this little blurb popped into my head begging to be written. It's more than a drabble so I guess you could call it a one shotter. This all takes place right before the team gets split up. Oh, before I get started, the usual applies. Don't have any part of Numb3rs or any of the Num3rs characters. No ownership or part of the NOES movie franchise either. Hope you enjoy. Here goes...**

David Sinclair was still laughing as he and Colby Granger emerged from the fifth floor elevator.

"Colby, man, I don't believe you! You, my friend, are a danger to yourself and others!" Sinclair found his desk, shaking his head and chuckling.

"See!" Colby complained, not really irritated, but voice brimming with mock indignation. "That's why I didn't want to tell you in the first place! I should have just kept my mouth shut! That's what I should have done."

Granger sat down at his own desk, pointedly turning his chair away from the other man and making a show of firing up his computer.

His partner's obviously phony huff only made David laugh harder.

Liz Warner, observing the exchange, couldn't contain her curiosity any longer.

"Okay" she interrupted, jumping into the middle. "I surrender. What gives? What's so funny?" Liz quizzed Sinclair.

Still snickering, David shook his head. "Oh, I think you should ask Colby here _that_ question." A broad grin punctuated the statement. He looked at Granger.

Liz turned expectantly to Colby, who appeared determined to ignore both his fellow agents.

"Colby? Come on! What is it? What's the scoop? It's been a long, nasty day. I could use a good laugh, believe me" Warner coaxed, trying to drag the answer out of the former Army man.

"I don't know what he's talking about." Colby maintained, "I got these 302's to finish before I can get out of here tonight. So if you two don't mind?"

"Oh no you don't" Liz countered. "I've been stuck all day babysitting Haley Harrison. I've got a migraine the size of Texas, I need some comic relief. Now spill."

The lady she mentioned was a federal witness in an upcoming trial. A wealthy, spoiled daddy's girl, young Ms. Harrison was also a major pain. And for some reason unfathomable to her, the universe had see fit to punish Liz by making the little darling Liz's problem for the day. Federal Marshal's had only arrive to relieve Warner's suffering in the last hour, whisking the whiney, demanding Haley off to parts unknown.

"You don't tell her, I will" David warned.

"Alright, fine!" Colby yielded, still determined to appear reluctant, although his act was pretty thin. He was almost grinning himself. "I know I'm gonna regret this. You're never gonna let me live it down! Me and my big mouth!"

"Colby Granger!" Agent Warner half yelled, "Enough with the stalling, already!"

"Okay, okay, sheesh!" Colby backed away from his computer, turning to face the other two.

"You heard there's a new _Nightmare on Elm Street_ movie coming out, right?"

"Yeah, sure. So?" Liz answered.

"Well, David and I tracked Sherman Louis" he named the suspect in a case, "to a real live, genuine, in production movie lot. I think maybe they're filming some stuff for the movie there and they got posters and promotional stuff stuck up all over the place. After we got Lewis in custody, I saw some of the posters with Freddy Kreuger and I started laughing, that's all."

"Posters of Freddy Kreuger make you laugh? That's not funny, Colby, that's just weird." Liz still didn't get it.

"Come on Granger" Sinclair prompted. "You know there's a lot more to it, man. Give it all up!" The wide grin was back.

Colby gave a huge, dramatic sigh. "Whatever. The both of you are not gonna let me out of here until I do anyway." He looked Warner straight in the eye. "It's just that seeing those posters brought back a, uh, memory, a painful one, I guess."

All of a sudden Liz figured maybe she should be the one to back off. Killing her headache wasn't worth forcing Colby to dredge up a part of his past he'd rather not.

"Uh, look, Colb…" she began.

"Liz, you gotta hear the whole story! Besides, it's not his pain he's talking about!" David urged, starting to chuckle again. He made a "the floor is yours" gesture at Colby, indicating the other man should continue.

"Alright, here it is" Colby continued. "It has to do with right after I got home from Afghanistan. I was, let's just say I wasn't in the best mood. I was out of sorts, having trouble getting back into the civilian groove, you know? I was waiting on Quantico to come thru, I was bored and short tempered, biting everybody's head off. I wasn't much fun to be around. It was the end of October, and some of my friends decided to try and distract me by dragging me off to this haunted house fund raiser in Boise." He paused in the narrative for another theatrical sigh.

"I tried to beg off. I mean, haunted houses are for kids, right? Besides, I figured after some of the stuff I'd seen over the past several years, it's gonna be pretty hard to freak me out, but my friends, they kind of insisted, wouldn't let me out of it, so off we went. I mean, you gotta understand, in my defense, I did try to warn them it wasn't a good idea but…"

"Still listening" Liz prodded, "don't stop now."

"Yeah, well, anyway, we get there, and the theme is _Nightmare on Elm Street"_ so I figure at some point, Freddy 's gonna jump at a me, you know?"

"Uh huh" Liz replied, "seems logical, go on."

"Jumping out on me, at that particular, uh, juncture wasn't a very good idea." Colby's tale took on a slightly defensive tone.

"Uh oh. I think I see where this is headed" Liz was smiling too, now.

"Again, in my defense" Colby told his teammate, "at this point in my life, I'm still conditioned to think if something jumps out at me, I kill it, right?"

"Oh no!" Liz winced, anticipating the punch line of Colby's story. "How bad was it?" she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer.

"Hey" Granger supplied indignantly, "the guy was treated and released. And when he found out I was just home from Afghanistan, he even declined to sue or press charges, so it all worked out"

"Great" Colby thought. Now Liz and David were _both_ yuckking it up. He turned back to his computer, determined to ignore the laughter.

**THE END**


End file.
